Founded in 1946, the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory (until 1990 - the Gorky State Conservatory) almost immediately took the place of one of the best music universities in the country. First of all, this is the merit of a wonderful team of teachers - graduates of the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories, by the time the work began, already well-known performing musicians and competent theorists.
At the origins
The whole world knows these names: A. P. Stogorsky, I. V. Sposobin, A. A. Kasyanov, B. S. Veprinsky, S. L. and A. L. Lazerson, N. N. Poluektova, D. V. Zhitomirsky, M. V. Tropinskaya, G. R. Ginzburg, M. S. Pekelis, Ya. I. Zak, Ya. V. Flier, V. A. Shcherbinin, V. P. Portugalov, O. K. Eiges, A. V. Broun, A. A. Nesterov, B. S. Marants, I. I. Kats, I. B. Gusman. It was they who raised the educational level, which the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory maintains to this day.
You can hardly find morean authoritative musical and public figure, who was the first rector - A. A. Kogan, who in 1950 was replaced in this post by the most excellent musicologist and pianist G. S. Dombaev, who also turned out to be an excellent organizer. His initiatives in every possible way helped the university to remain among the leading ones and every year to take an increasingly worthy place. The Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory in 1957 received the honorary name of the composer M. I. Glinka.
Rise
By the 1960s, excellent musical traditions had developed at the conservatory, pivotal pedagogical schools were established, and in 1965 a system of further education - postgraduate education - was launched. A little earlier, the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory decorated its Grand Concert Hall with an organ of the German company "Alexander Schuke", students received an increasingly convenient building for classes and new dormitories.
The organ in the hall of the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory was not idle. Lessons in the class of the Honored Artist of the USSR, Professor G. I. Kozlova were extremely popular, many people wanted to get into her class. And, of course, not only to her. But the Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory has always had a very large competition for applicants. Teachers of all directions worked extremely hard, their students had no equal at all-Union competitions and festivals of contemporary music. This was shown especially well by the D. D. Shostakovich Festival in 1964.
Theorists
Twenty-one years since 1972, the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory. Glinka flourished under the famouscomposer, People's Artist of the USSR, Professor A. A. Nesterov. During these years, the composer department shone especially brightly, the strongest musicological school was formed here, collections of articles and scientific works were published, which became universally known: "Problems of Contemporary Music", "Problems of Music Analysis" and many others. One of the most interesting areas for Nizhny Novgorod musicians has been developing rapidly - this is musicology. The faculty turned out to be a pioneer in many ways.
In the seventies, the Great Concert Hall of the Gorky Conservatory presented mankind with the first performances of Schnittke's works, Rachmaninov's sacred music, the music of Kastalsky, Chesnokov, and also some Western composers. Each such concert was a discovery and confirmed the general opinion about this university as a bold and honest pioneer of both forbidden masterpieces and undeservedly forgotten authors.
New time
Since 1994, the conservatory has elected an outstanding conductor, People's Artist of Russia and honorary citizen of Nizhny Novgorod, Professor L. K. Sivukhin, as rector. It was then that the university entrusted to him acquired extensive ties with music universities abroad and an international status. Now students and trainees from Syria, Japan, France, Denmark, China, USA, Jamaica are studying at the conservatory.
In 1996, NNGK was headed by a conductor and composer, Honored Art Worker, People's Artist of Russia, member of the Academy of Humanities, winner of many awards and holder of orders,Professor E. B. Fertelmeister. Since that moment, the development of the university has flowed in all directions, and integration into the musical culture of the world has acquired a new pace. The authority of NNGK has increased significantly, and in 2005 the university receives the status of an academy. The conservatory has changed from the outside: the façade, walls, and interiors have become modern, but the atmosphere of creative coziness, created initially, has been preserved in its entirety.
Fields of activity
Now NNGK is the largest center of musical culture of the entire Volga region, providing the federal district with musical and educational, educational and scientific activities, which have been repeatedly awarded by various grants: the Humanitarian Science Foundation of Russia, the Open Society Institute, the Goethe Institute , as well as DAAD scholarships and many others. In addition, NOGC receives additional financial support from the state. This makes it possible to financially support the teaching and accompanist staff, to intensify their creative activity.
Higher education specialists receive in two areas: "education and pedagogy" and "culture and art", which include nine speci alties and fourteen specializations. Programs of postgraduate vocational education: postgraduate studies in the speci alties of creative, performing and scientific - "musical art".
Innovation
The best educational programs of innovative Russia were recognized as those implemented in NOGC, among themthe following:
- Instrumental performance program: piano, organ; orchestral percussion and wind instruments; orchestral string instruments, orchestral folk instruments (department of folk instruments).
- Vocal art programs: folk singing, academic singing.
- Conducting programs: opera and symphony orchestra, academic choir, military brass band.
More than seven hundred students study at the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory, seventy graduate students and applicants for titles. Time requires innovations, and they are widely implemented. New faculties and speci alties were opened: "acting art", "musical sound engineering", "musical pedagogy". New is the specialization of opera and symphony conducting, the directions "musical and applied art" and "musicology", the profiles "music journalism in the media", "musicology" and "musical pedagogy".
Teaching conditions
Students study in fairly comfortable conditions that allow them to fully immerse themselves in creativity: rehearsal facilities, a publishing complex, a library, a recording studio, hostels - all this accompanies the accumulation of theoretical knowledge and purely professional skills. Great opportunities for improving performance skills. More than two hundred teachers of the highest qualification support the desire of students to receive a truly higher musical education, no matter what type of musical activity they choose:performing solo, conductor, ensemble, orchestral.
The faculty of advanced training and additional education helps young professionals in their future activities. In addition to traditional programs, they provide training for music lecturers, critics-journalists for the media, radio and TV editors. Young specialists are also supported by a special department that promotes the employment of NOGC graduates, which holds a specialist fair for employers and job seekers. In addition, during the training, all students are engaged in educational activities, which, of course, helps them gain experience: performing, lecturing and concert. NNGK students also constantly participate in professional competitions of various levels, up to the highest.
Science
Without the serious scientific research carried out at the university, the authority of NOGC would not have such a height. Our own musicological school, unique and highly professional, based on an interdisciplinary approach to science, is notable for its invariable interest in the problems of contemporary music. The Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory, the address of whose concert halls is known to everyone, young and old in the city and the region, in addition to educational activities, also works hard for fellow specialists.
Nizhny Novgorod musicologists prepare textbooks for music universities and successfully publish them together with illustrative material, as this is allowed by their own publishing house and recording studio. Monographs, collections are publishedarticles written by teachers of performing departments, conference materials, many methodological and teaching aids are also published. In Russian culture, every event held by NNGK becomes a noticeable phenomenon: scientific and artistic projects, concert cycles, scientific conferences, publications and art exhibitions.
International Activities
The international prestige of the conservatory is constantly and steadily growing, since activities in this direction are large-scale and multifaceted. Creative contacts between NNGK and universities in Austria, Germany, China and other countries are regular. Cooperation agreements have been signed with many of them. Constant exchanges of visits, creative meetings. Students, trainees and graduate students from Mongolia, Korea, China, Serbia, Belgium, Austria, France study together with the Russians.
Joint festivals are held according to agreements: Folkwang-Hochschule (Germany) has been cooperating with NNGK since 1996, exchanging joint master classes and concert cycles of students, graduate students and teachers within the framework of this cooperation; since 1998, under an agreement, has been undertaking joint musical events with the NNGK Bruckner Conservatory (Austria); Essen hosts a festival prepared by NNGK teachers - "Music of the outgoing century", as well as many other international scientific and artistic projects. NNGK hosts guests from the Paris School of Music, the Grand Opera and the Metropolitan Opera (USA).
In Russia
In NNGK among teaching staffa huge percentage of concert musicians. Even when they go international, they maintain traditional ties with colleagues from music schools, colleges, schools of the country, where Nizhny Novgorod musicians hold master classes, competitions, seminars, open lessons, olympiads and, of course, concerts.
That is why the competition for applicants is consistently high, and the geography of applicants covers almost our entire vast country. As already mentioned, after graduation, graduates do not remain without help. Education at NNGK was initially included in the urban cultural environment: students give concerts within the walls of the conservatory itself, in two excellent halls, and strengthen the authority of the Nizhny Novgorod performing school, touring extensively and successfully.
Training level
More than seven thousand NNGK graduates work in all major cities of Russia, in the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Israel, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, adequately representing the Nizhny Novgorod school of music. They also make up the musical elite of the city: the pedagogical and creative basis of the conservatory, philharmonic society, music college, opera house, choir college, schools and lyceums.
The quality of training of specialists is confirmed by the numerous victories of students and graduate students in various professional competitions. It is difficult to even list the most prestigious of them, because the list is long:
- All-Russian competition (Moscow, repeatedly).
- International Piano Competition (Germany).
- "In the homeland of Tchaikovsky" (Izhevsk).
- Name ContestNesterov (Nizhny Novgorod, wind and percussion instruments).
- "Silver Sounds" (Petrozavodsk).
- "Pearl of Kuban" (Krasnodar).
- Vila Lobos Competition (Spain, classical guitar).
- "Prikamye-2010" (Perm, folk instruments).
- "Russian Olympus" (Nizhny Novgorod, repeatedly).
- Perpetuum mobile (Ukraine, bayan, accordion).
- International competition "Volga Blizzard" (Samara, opera singing).
- International competition "Orpheus" (Volgograd, vocal).
- International Jurgenson Competition (composition).
- All-Russian competition (Bashkiria, choral conducting).
- All-Russian choir competition "Russian music of the 19th century".
- All-Russian competition of scientific works of students (RAM named after Gnesins).
- All-Russian competition named after Babushkin (Moscow, creative works of sound engineers).
Deserved Perks
NNGC is a constant initiator and excellent organizer of professional competitions in all speci alties in the field of music among the younger generation. Especially noteworthy are the traditionally strongest competitions in the history and theory of music.
In 2012, the Olympiad held by NNGK was included in the list of leading Olympiads held under the Union of Rectors of the Ministry of Education of Russia. The status of such events allows winners and prize-winners to bypass entrance exams when entering the conservatory.
Faculties
Piano performance has always been the main and leading speci alty since the founding of the university. There are five departments at the piano faculty: two special piano, chamber ensemble, concertmaster skills, as well as a harpsichord and organ section.
Orchestral faculty also exists from the very first day of the opening of the conservatory. There are three departments: strings, woodwinds, as well as brass and percussion instruments.
There is only one department at the Faculty of Folk Instruments, such a structure has the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory. Glinka. The bayan faculty is not separately present in it, but the specialization itself, of course, exists within the boundaries of this department. There are two departments at the vocal faculty - solo singing and the department of musical theater. The Faculty of Conducting teaches choral conducting and opera and symphony at two departments. Composer-musicological faculty owns six departments. Among them are compositions and instrumentations; music theory; music history; sound engineering; music journalism; music pedagogy. In addition, NNGK has a faculty for advanced training and five general university departments.
Addresses
Applicants submit their documents at the address: Piskunova street, house 40. You can first make inquiries by calling 8-831-411-88-78. The admission committee has been working since June 20 in room 105 on the first floor from 9.00 to 17.00, with a lunch break from 12.00 to 13.00. The hostel is located at: Genkina street, house 71. Phone: 8-831-432-25-72.
